gone to bed at all, but had resolved to sit up all night in case he
should call her or want for anything. But the hours wore on peacefully
for him till the moon began her downward course towards the west, and
the tide having rolled in to its highest mark, began to ebb and flow out
again. Then--all at once--he awoke--smitten by
a shock of pain that seemed to crash through his heart and send his
brain swirling into a blind chaos. Struggling for breath, he sprang up
in his bed, and instinctively snatched the handbell at his side. He was
hardly aware of ringing it, so great was his agony--but presently,
regaining a glimmering sense of consciousness, he found Mary's arms
round him, and saw Mary's eyes looking tenderly into his own.

"David, dear David!" And the sweet voice was shaken by tears.
"David!--Oh, my poor dear, don't you know me?"

Know her? In the Valley of the Shadow what other Angel could there be so
faithful or so tender! He sighed, leaning heavily against her bosom.

"Yes, dear--I know you!" he gasped, faintly. "But--I am very ill--dying,
I think! Open the window--give me air!"

She laid his head gently back on the pillow, and ran quickly to throw
open the lattice. In that same moment, the dog Charlie, who had followed
her downstairs from her room, jumped on the bed, and finding his
master's hand lying limp and pallid outside the coverlet, fawned upon it
with a plaintive cry. The cool sea-air rushed in, and Helmsley's sinking
strength revived. He turned his eyes gratefully towards the stream of
silvery moonlight that poured through the open casement.

"'Angels ever bright and fair!'" he murmured--then as Mary came back to
his side, he smiled vaguely; "I thought I heard my little sister
singing!"

Slipping her arm again under his head, she carefully administered a dose
of the cordial which had been made up for him as a calmative against his
sudden heart attacks.

He swallowed it slowly and with difficulty.

"I'm--I'm all right," he said, feebly. "The pain has gone. I'm sorry to
have wakened you up, Mary!--but you're always kind and patient----"

His voice broke--and a grey pallor began to steal almost imperceptibly
upwards over his wasted features. She watched him, her heart beating
fast with grief and terror,--the tears rushing to her eyes in spite of
her efforts to restrain them. For she saw that he was dying. The
solemnly musical plash of the sea sounded rhythmically upon the quiet
air like the so